Overcoming Burnout and Finding Joy Again

We are continuing our series, the Mid-Year Momentum for the month of June. Today’s topic is going to be a great one. It is called Reignite, Overcoming Burnout and Finding Joy Again. I hope that this blog will help to encourage you if you are feeling tired, drained, or stuck in a rut. I also hope that it helps you to rediscover the joy of your calling and give you some faith-based strategies to overcome burnout and reignite the passion that you have for your work.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you know that burnout is real even when you’re doing what God has called you to do. I have definitely experienced burnout before. Today I will be sharing a story of a time when that happened to me. First I want to define burnout in the context of a faith-based business. Burnout for us can be emotional and spiritual exhaustion. You may experience a loss of joy or motivation. It can also be apathy or disconnection from your purpose.

Common Causes of Burnout

Over-committing: I laugh because I am an over-committer. For me and probably for a lot of you that comes from my people pleasing tendencies. I have gotten better as I’ve gotten older, but I’ve definitely been guilty of people pleasing and over committing, which leads to burnout.
Working in your own strength rather than relying on God: When you try to do it on your own it can lead to burnout.
Lack of rest, boundaries, or spiritual nourishment: Yes! these things contribute to burnout even in a business standpoint.
Constant output without time for input: You have to feed yourself spiritually and emotionally. It’s also equally important for you to get rest. You can not constantly be putting out, whether in sharing or working. You must have time for input as well.

My Story

I’m going to share my personal story of a time that I felt burnout and how I recognized it. Around 13 years ago I had been in the business for around five years. I was really wanting to grow my business. At that time I still had really small children. My youngest was about to go into a 4-year-old kindergarten while my middle child was going into 5-year-old kindergarten and my oldest into third grade at the time. I had this business as a Virtual assistant and I wanted to grow it. At that time, I had a business coach who told me that the only way to really scale and grow was to start a team. That was something I really wanted to do. I had been doing internships at that time for about a year, so I had a couple of interns that I thought “Okay, this could work.”

I began outsourcing some of my work to those team members. Really quickly I discovered that I didn’t really have any good systems in place at the time so everything was haphazard and overwhelming. Many of them were unable to do the work that they thought they could do. Because of this it all would fall back on me to complete the work. Sometimes I would have missed a deadline and the client would be unhappy. Honestly I felt very burnt out.

That was the year I decided to go back to work full-time. I did this for three years and did my business very part-time. This is a totally different topic. But I believe that it was just not the right time for me to start a team and I wasn’t in the right season. God had other plans. It was definitely a time that I felt very burnt out and I recognized that because I was so overwhelmed and I was over committed. I was trying to put out more, unable to rest and take in what I needed. It was a very difficult time for me.

Verses To Help

If you’re in that time of burnout and in need of some biblical encouragement, I want to share with you a couple of verses. Jesus invites us to rest in Him and not to just completely continue to hustle.

Matthew 11: 28-30: “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

This is to encourage you to endure, but not with your own strength. Endure with God’s strength. Think about the importance of Sabbath rest, not just for Sunday, but rhythms of rest in your business.

Remember to Plan

Obviously, as Christian authors, speakers and coaches there are times where you really have to push. I have a client who is about to launch a book soon. She’s in that time of really pushing to get the book finished and getting all the things done for a book launch. I had another client just a month or two back. She was launching a coaching program. That is another example of a time that we are pushing. After all that pushing remember to plan a time of rest. I’m not saying that you should do nothing for your business, but that you try not doing as much. Create a rhythm in this.

Practical Application

I just want to reaffirm that you’re not failing if you feel burned out. You’re human and God is not asking us for perfection, but for obedience and for dependence. I have felt very burnt out and overwhelmed even in the past year. I noticed that it it was almost like an ebb and flow. If you’ve ever had a spiritual experience of a mountaintop and then a valley experience, it was like that. Here are six practical ways that you can reignite that passion that you have.

Revisit your why: Why do you do what you do? If you’re a journaler go back and read in your journal. You can pray, you can recall your story of why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Create space to dream again: Take a creative Sabbath to brainstorm without any pressure. Take some time to yourself to think about what God’s placed on your heart to do.
Simplify your commitments: Cut down or cut out what’s not aligned or fruitful. There are several moving pieces and parts in my business that require certain commitments. To help me recently I have chosen to lay down or get rid of some pieces of my business because I can no longer continue at the pace I was going. I’m not going to say that I’ll never pick it back up. I have had to do this many times, and it always seems to be something that, if I’m listening and paying attention, God blesses.
Reconnect with your people: Talk to your business friends, mentors, and clients who inspire you. The power of the internet has really blessed me and my business. I have gained friendships and have been able to meet a lot of these people in person at events. Last August I got to meet a long standing client and mentor of mine. We have worked together for over 11 years. Since meeting we have taken two trips together. I have other business friends that I talk to on a regular basis via Voxer or Facebook Messenger. It’s almost like the story in the Bible, where people came alongside a man and held his arms up. Or like in Proverbs 27:17 that says: As iron sharpens iron, so one per person sharpens another. We really need each other in business.
Serve from your overflow, not from obligation. Make sure that you make time for what fills you up spiritually. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the analogy, you know you can’t serve from an empty cup. You have to fill that cup up so much that it’s overflowing, and that’s what you give to others is that overflow.
Celebrate small wins: Look back on the fruit that God has already produced through your work and celebrate those things. This is super important. If you feel weary you are not alone, God sees you. He’s not asking you to do this by yourself. He’s offering rest and clarity and joy again. Make sure that you are spending time to journal and also with the Lord.

Needing a Little More Help?

I want to encourage you if you know someone who is experiencing burnout or needing to reignite their passion again, share this blog with that friend who would benefit. Finally, maybe you have a lot of balls in the air that you’re juggling. Or you believe you would benefit from some help, please reach out to myself and my team by filling out the form here.

We would be thrilled to talk to you about how we might help you and your business. I would also like to encourage you to leave a review of this episode if it blessed you. I don’t ask for reviews a lot, but I need to, because reviews are really great for podcasters. So if you can go over on your Apple Podcasting app or Spotify please leave a review.